Full Coverage: Croatia

28.02.2006 Last thursday, 23 February, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development organized, under the “Croatian Responsible Business Agenda 2006” initiative, a presentation of GRI guidelines reporting on socially responsible business and their translation into Croatian.

24.02.2006 The subject of piracy has gained on prominence with the start, twenty days or so ago, of the first phase of screening of the legislation that regulates the protection of intellectual property and copyrights in Croatia, under the negotiations for Croatian membership into the European Union.

23.02.2006 The Civil Society Forum apologized publicly yesterday for the allegations made about SMART and other organizations mentioned in the text “Certain Aspects of Work of National Foundation for Development of Civil Society”, published two weeks ago. The public apology was signed by all members of the CSF, with the exception of the Serb Democratic Forum.

22.02.2006 Last week, upon prior agreement by the Ministries of Health and Economy, the asbestos factory “Salonit” in Vranjac received approval for continued production of asbestos products. The approval was granted in spite of the fact that asbestos and related compounds was official included in the list of toxic materials maintained by the Ministry of Health.

21.02.2006 The Ministry of Maritime, Tourism, Transport and Development completed the seminar on “Education of Hotels in Environmental Protection”, co-organized with the Croatian Centre for Clean Production and the Norwegian National Institution of Technology from Oslo.

21.02.2006 The Government of Croatia published a list of public administration bodies for 2006, officially signed by Damir Polancec, the Vice-President of the Government. There is one striking omission from the list, the Croatian Radio and Television, meaning that the national public broadcaster is not among the 195 institutions that will be obligated to answer inquiries under the Law on Free Access to Information.

17.02.2006 On 15-16 February, a delegation of the European Commission, headed by the President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Expansion Commissioner Ollie Rehn, visited Zagreb. During the visit, the EC and the Government of Croatia signed the Agreement on Decentralization of Management with Pre-Accession Assistance.

16.02.2006 Last week, the Legal Team established by Iskorak, Kontra and the Croatian Women Network addressed the Government of Croatia and its competent bodies regarding the draft-Law on Sports, prepared and presented to the public several weeks ago.

15.02.2006 Last thursday, 2 February, the “Civil Society Forum” informal initiative that gathers a number of Croatian NGOs, came out with strong accusations against the activities of the National Foundation for Development of Civil Society in 2005. The Foundation is accused of fostering conflict of interests of its governing body members; the inexistence of supervisory or body that would receive complaints; unclear evaluation procedures; unclear financial operations; lack of programming profiling and unjustified expenditures.

14.02.2006 Associations involved in the Coalition of Green Activist Groups (KZAG) reacted on the position of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the EU violates the trade agreement for its refusal to allow genetically modified organizms (GMOs) and demanded from the Government to take the side of the countries that are pressured by the WTO, to take all necessary measures to oppose the WTO’s lethal effects on national agriculture, nature and citizens of Croatia.

08.02.2006 “Media Initiatives” from Sarajevo, the STINE Institute from Split and the Novi Sad School of Journalism promoted the newly established consortia “New Media Initaitives”, under the “From Conflict to Trust” module.

07.02.2006 The constitutional session of the Committee on Ethics in Science and Higher Education was held yesterday in the offices of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (MZOS in Zagreb.

03.02.2006 The Government of Croatia dismissed two country assemblies (Pozega-Slavonija and Dubrovnik-Neretva) yesterday, together with one City and one Municipal Council and appointed commissioners to conduct their duties until new institutions are constituted.